The Good Sponge Sampler CD release party in Waterford on Saturday features 14 bands on two stages.

Necessity has a way of shaping the future. Sometime in 2011, Rivergods frontman Ben Parent, 45, was looking for a way to promote his band's latest album. The New London-based sextet, formed in 1997, found its groove in 2000 with the addition of Parent's wife, Nancy, on vocals, guitar and pedal steel; now, with harmony vocals, Nancy's ethereal pedal-steel licks, Dana Takaki's violin and Bill Groth's rollicking piano runs, they're steeped in roots-based folk-rock, though drummer Chris DeBiasi and bassist Craig Johnson can also lay down a convincing soul-funk backbeat.

After talking to various imprints and assessing his band's social media climate, Parent decided to start his own record label.

"It's something I always wanted to do because I have a lot of musician friends and like-minded people in the area and beyond," Parent said. "I felt like it was a good opportunity for me to promote my album and make some contacts."

Good Sponge Records was born. This Saturday, April 4, they'll celebrate the release of "Good Sponge Sampler Vol. III" with a show at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center's Rose Barn in Waterford, with more than a dozen bands on two stages.

Along with the Rivergods, Good Sponge artists John Fries and the Elements; the Sue Menhart Band; Chris Mackay and the Toneshifters; the Ebin-Rose Trio, a Celtic-Americana band from Guilford; North Stonington's Dirt Road Radio; and eight other acts will perform. (Nancy Parent will perform a solo set.) "A band will come up and play two or three songs, and then the emcee switches to the acoustic stage for two songs, then back to the band," Parent said. "It's this fun sort of fast-paced but still relaxing way to experience over a dozen bands in one night."

Running Good Sponge requires fronting money for CD releases, promoting bands, designing artwork, running social media campaigns and "really being a conduit for the music to go through me and out to other people," Parent said. "I don't have the distribution model set up where my records are getting into indie record stores across the country. It's not that serious. It would be nice, but that's more advanced business-wise. I feel with the Internet and what we do, we do it pretty well."

The first Good Sponge Rivergods album led to working with Menhart, a local singer-songwriter, and later, Amalgamated Muck, a folk group from the Chester area. "The Good Sponge Sampler Vol. 1" came out at the beginning of 2012. "The idea was to do a strength-in-numbers showcase of some of my friends and like-minded artists who put out roots, Americana, blues-based rock," Parent said, "less the indie thing and more like songwriter-based, good, solid performance/songwriting and bands, all quality."

Later that year, Good Sponge put out "Rave On: A Tribute to the Reducers Vol. 1," with two-dozen covers of songs by New London's legendary power-pop band, who flirted with mainstream success and opened shows for the Ramones and the Replacements. Miracle Legion's Mark Mulcahy (as Birdfeeder), Canadian rocker Dave Rave (Teenage Head), Boston's Frigate and five different Japanese bands — two of whom once toured with the Reducers — contributed tracks. "Rave On" raised money for the family of Reducers bassist Steve Kaika, who had recently died of cancer.

"We gathered the money and sent it right to their family, which worked well," Parent said. "It was a way to reach out and make connections with people. Everybody just loved the Reducers, so it was a nice way to pay tribute to them, locally, regionally and beyond."

Connecticut recording studios are represented on "Vol. III"; Carl Franklin, of New London's Pwop Studios, and Eric Michael Lichter, of Dirt Floor in Chester, contributed tracks. "It's a nice sampler of the work [studios] do, too," Parent said. "They've been really supportive of [Good Sponge]. … It's a way to keep these connections going organically."

So far, Good Sponge has focused on roots-based music. But Parent, who moonlights in a surf-punk band, is open to all types of submissions.

"I like to call it a music umbrella," Parent said. "It's not my sole business or anything like that — I have a day job. But I think it's something that sustains itself and is a legitimate thing."

GOOD SPONGE SAMPLER CD RELEASE PARTY takes place at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center in Waterford on Saturday, April 4,beginning at 7 p.m. Suggested donation is $10. Information: theoneill.org.